


love, they say

by satellites (brella)



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-10
Updated: 2013-09-10
Packaged: 2017-12-26 06:05:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/962489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brella/pseuds/satellites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Crock-Nguyen women give surprisingly solid advice about child-bearing, to Artemis's shock.</p>
            </blockquote>





	love, they say

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted on some ficathon somewhere.

"I’m just kinda worried I’ll mess it up," Artemis finally blurts out, her cheeks flushing in spite of herself. She keeps her eyes focused on her now-cold mug of tea and self-consciously pushes some hair out of her eyes.   
  
Her mother  _tsk_ s and sets her cup down on the coffee table. Artemis folds her lips in and chews on them and feels incredibly stupid, because somehow she’s faced the end of the world approximately sixteen times and yet this seems like the most terrifying thing she’s ever done.   
  
"What makes you think so?" Paula asks gently and patiently. She folds her hands in her lap and Artemis sighs, covering her eyes with her hands.   
  
"It’s just – his family was so  _happy_ , and normal, and perfect, and mine—” She cuts herself off before she says something offensive, but she knows that Paula understands. “I just don’t know what I could offer. It’s not like I have great experience or a perfect track record or – Mom, I don’t even know how to change a diaper! And he  _does_! And—”  
  
"Shhh,  _được yên tĩnh_ ,” Paula interjects, and though her voice is quiet it still hushes Artemis in an instant. She finally glances up from the table to see her mother smiling at her, a mix of warmness and wryness.  _Loving_. Her breath hitches a little. “Motherhood is not about your past, Artemis. It is about your child’s future. That’s all you need to care about.”   
  
"It’s not that easy, Mom," Artemis mutters, suddenly mulish and sullen. Her stomach is squirming and she doesn’t know why. "I don’t want even the  _smallest_  risk; I just – I want it to be perfect.”   
  
Paula lets out a laugh that makes Artemis grimace. “Don’t be ridiculous. Nothing is ever perfect.”   
  
"I don’t—"  
  
"Artemis, all that matters is that you love," Paula tells her warmly, reaching over and putting one hand on Artemis’s knee (and it seems more wizened, suddenly, such a startling difference from the smooth palms that had smelled of oranges and braided her hair when she was small). "It is an easy explanation for a difficult crossroad, I know, but you have to trust yourself to love." She winks. "And frankly, the fact that you are worrying this much is already a very, very good sign."   
  
Artemis gets down on her knees so that she can hug her, wrapping her arms around her waist and resting her head on her lap. Paula chuckles and strokes her hair.   
  
"I am so proud," she says, "of how you have grown."   
  
Artemis snorts and sits up, rolling her eyes. “Yeah, you’d be the first.”   
  
Paula scoffs, pulling a loose hair off of Artemis’s sweater and shaking her head.   
  
"Do whatever makes you happy, Artemis," she whispers, and it’s the most helpful and the most confusing advice Artemis has gotten.

* * *

"So you’re going to be squeezing out a junior Flash Boy, huh?" Jade drawls, backflipping away. Artemis barely manages to avoid a parting kick to the jaw, springing backwards. "Disgusting. But  _adorable_.” 

  
Artemis growls deep in her throat and sprints at her, but Jade dodges her in an instant and immediately pins her extended arm behind her back, clenching her into a standstill. Artemis squirms against her grip.   
  
"Just shut up and fight me!" Artemis barks back, exasperated – Sportsmaster can’t be far off, and okay, so maybe it’s good that she’s interrupting a Cobra Venom handoff, but really the only reason she’s here is to see Jade in her time of crisis.   
  
"Oh, is  _that_  what you wanted?” Jade sighs. “No sisterly advice on motherhood and redheads? I’m crushed.”   
  
Artemis takes Jade’s moment of looseness as an opportunity to smash the back of her head into Jade’s face, knocking her backwards; she whirls around and tackles her to the ground, pinning her expertly. She smirks, triumphant, and blows her hair out of her face.   
  
"No," she retorts. " _Now_  you’re crushed.” She sighs. “Okay, fine; advice on childbearing in ten words or less.”   
  
"I have a limit? That’s not fair," Jade protests languidly, and Artemis can sense her complacent grin even behind the eerie mask. "Well, fine. I can do it in three."   
  
"So go."   
  
Jade shrugs. “Go for it.”   
  
Artemis blinks down at her, struck into silence. Jade seems highly amused.   
  
"If there’s  _anyone_  on this planet I can trust to not screw up raising a child, it’s you, sis,” she coos. “The very thought of you doing anything  _but_  is frankly laughable. You’re too soft-hearted to  _not_  be a good mother.”   
  
"And what about you?" Artemis says, frowning, shoving back the vague tincture of warmth gathering in her chest.   
  
Jade laughs, a low little chuckle. “I’d say I’m about a seven. I only get extra points because if anyone  _dared_  to touch my child, I’d rip them apart with my bare hands.”   
  
"So would I," Artemis replies before she can think on what she’s saying. "Hypothetically."   
  
"Then you’ll be fine," Jade says genuinely, and proudly, and Artemis has just a second to smile before Jade’s legs have locked her head into place and thrown her aside.   


* * *

Wally’s asleep when she gets home, his arm slung at an angle over his head, his hair mussed. The summer heat in Palo Alto is fierce, so his shirt lies discarded on the carpet. Brucely is lying on his back between Wally’s legs, his paws askew in the air, his tongue lolling out.   
  
Artemis bites her lip to keep down a snigger and stumbles into the closest t-shirt she can find, which happens to be a worn-out black one with a picture of Einstein’s face on it. She crawls into bed, not bothering to pull the covers up, and lays one arm across Wally’s midsection, sighing.   
  
"Bed empty," he mumbles, startling her. "No note. Car gone. You could have  _died_ ; you could have been  _seen_.”   
  
Artemis laughs quietly when she notices him staring at her through one open eye, smirking.   
  
"Nerd," she whispers, kissing him on the cheek. He ruffles her hair and lets out a sleepy yawn.   
  
"Thank you," he replies. "Seriously, though, babe, where  _were_  you? Brucely was ready to send out the dogs.”   
  
"Har  _har_ ,” Artemis deadpans. She shifts closer to him, securing her head on his shoulder, and closes her eyes. “I was just around. It doesn’t matter.”   
  
Wally squeezes her slightly and settles. “Whatever you say,” he mumbles, already on the road back to sleep.   
  
Artemis curls up and falls asleep smiling.

 

 


End file.
